[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 7



IRAQ:

Iraqi PM Al Maliki pushes US to transfer trio for execution


Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has asked the US to transfer three
former Saddam Hussain regime officials from US custody to a prison headed
by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, informed sources in Al Maliki's Al Dawa
Party have revealed to Gulf News.

The men were sentenced to death by the Supreme Criminal Court in September
2007 for heading and participating in the famous Al Anfal genocide
campaign against Kurds in Arbil, Sulaimainiyah and Kirkuk during Saddam's
reign.

Ali Hassan Al Majid, who headed the 3-year campaign, is currently in US
custody as well as former Defence Minister Sultan Hashim, and former
Assistant Chief of Army Staff, Hussain Rasheed.

Prison prepared

According to Qah'tani Al Anzi, an Interior Ministry Officer, a prison in
the Al Kazimiyah area is being revamped to lodge detainees of the former
regime and includes a special execution area for hangings.

Arif Shahin, the head of the Supreme Criminal Court, told Gulf News the
court has done its duty issuing the death sentences and now it is up to
the Iraqi government to carry out the sentences.

Al Maliki wants the immediate execution of the three convicts but
President Jalal Al Talabani and his deputy Tarek Al Hashim rejected
ratification of these sentences.

"There are more than 180,000 signatures of the Al Anfal victims families
which were dispatched to the head of the government in Baghdad and the
presidency to accelerate the implementation of death sentences against Al
Majid, Hashim and Rasheed, since a year ago," Ayoub Kalali, the director
general of the Ministry of Al Anfal of the Kurdistan Regional Government,
told Gulf News.

No recourse

Some observers believe that Al Maliki's request to transfer Al Majid,
Hashemi and Rasheed to an Iraqi prison will pave the way for the
implementation of death sentences against those without recourse to the
Presidency of the Republic.

Taleb Al Ameri, a criminal lawyer explained to Gulf News that Al Maliki
has the authority to immediately carry out the death sentences without the
consent of the President.

However, he warned that if he does this, it might cause a political crisis
between political parties.

(source: Gulf News)






INDONESIA:

Stairway to Heaven


The Bali bombers' saga is currently limping onward toward its squalid and
inevitable conclusion. A hail of bullets should soon be offloaded at its 3
unrepentant protagonists, after a final trio of Gudang Garam cigarettes I
shouldn't wonder.

Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron have been tying themselves in logical
knots in recent weeks, protesting against the death penalty one moment and
embracing martyrdom the next.

For example, Gufron and Samudra recently signed a letter stating, "It is
forbidden for me to accept execution because killing a Muslim is a
cowardly and criminal act and is very sinful." Why anyone's supposed to
give a battery-operated shag about what these murderers can or can't
accept isn't made explicitly clear in the text of the letter, but anyway,
Allah's own grim reapers blithely continue, "Those who have planned and
intentionally commit it will provoke God's wrath and curse and will be
sent to hell for all eternity."

Give yourself 3 gold stars and a pat on the back if you've spotted the
747-sized flaw in this argument, namely that, along with many Australians,
plenty of Muslims also died in the Bali blasts.

Moreover, of course, sharia law, a system supported by the Bali Three,
supports the death penalty. Capital punishment appears to be advocated by
the Koran itself in the following verse: "If anyone kills a person, unless
it be for murder or spreading mischief in the land, it would be as if he
killed all people." (Koran 5:32) The phrase "spreading mischief in the
land" in particular suffers from the typical vagueness inherent in our
2-millennia-old monotheisms and their accompanying holy books and has been
used to justify all kinds of murder through the centuries.

Casual conversations with friends and letters to The Jakarta Post in
recent weeks have depressed me somewhat in their support for the death
penalty. The Bali bombing easily excites emotions of course, especially
the lack of repentance expressed by its perpetrators. But most of these
angry Westerners looking forward to the 3 executions come from
enlightened, strongly secular countries in which the use of the death
penalty has long been outlawed (the good old US of A and Ol' Sparky would
be a notable exception here).

I would suggest that it ill befits critics of fundamentalist Islam to
advocate a central tenet of its ideology. The replication of the original
act of murder in the form of capital punishment is philosophically and
ethically problematic. Surely we should be seeking to rise above a
legalized and codified form of revenge. As Gandhi once said, "An eye for
an eye will make the world go blind." Maybe that's why he wore glasses.

Advocates of the death penalty claim it acts as a deterrent, a fact that
isn't borne out by the statistics. Detractors such as myself would say
that capital punishment works against our evolving sense of morality and
human rights and leads to a culture of violence and bloodlust.

Unfortunately though, the problems with life imprisonment for the Bali
Three are the creaking machinations of the Indonesian justice system and
the often porous nature of jails here. The bombers in question presumably
don't have the financial wherewithal for a Tommy Suharto style custodial
sentence: Puffing cigars in a specially constructed jailhouse jacuzzi
surrounded by bikini-clad lovelies (allegedly). There is, however, the
very real danger that these 3 stooges will be regarded as heroes by those
surrounding them and may even eventually be sprung from their cells.

So what to do, what to do? How to punish appropriately in this case? I
guess they could always be tied to a chair with their eyes clamped open
like Malcolm in A Clockwork Orange while being made to watch Australian
soap operas and American TV evangelists all day long. That would give them
something to chew on; I can almost hear the bloodcurdling screams now.

For those of you still sticking with your firing squad fantasies of
vengeance, however, I would urge you to at least think creatively. There
are many ways to administer the ultimate sentence. Burning, boiling, the
breaking wheel, crucifixion (line on the left, one cross each),
disembowelment, drawing and quartering, electrocution, flaying, garroting,
gassing, guillotine, hanging, impalement, lethal injection, marooning,
nitrogen asphyxiation (apparently the most painless, humane way to die),
poisoning, sawing in half, firing squad, Phil Collins compact disc on
repeat, slow slicing, starvation, stoning ... I could go on.

Marooning would be a particularly apposite method for the Indonesian
archipelago I reckon. Perhaps Suharto's infamous gulag, Buru Island,
one-time penal home of legendary author Pramoedya Ananta Toer, could be
revived.

We could dump our jolly jihadis on the beach there with only a 6 foot tall
Tupperware container of bacon sandwiches, 50 liters of Jack Daniels and 3
Ozzie surfboards for company. Alas this would probably lead to some
ghastly media interest, perhaps even an MTV-created reality show called
Terrorist Island or something: First martyr in paradise wins an
advertising endorsement contract with Honda.

By far the best course of action as far as I'm concerned would be for us
to lock Messrs Amrozi, Samudra and Gufron away securely, ignore them and
live in peace and harmony with each other regardless of religion, race or
creed for all eternity, Amen. I suspect Terrorist Island would be the more
likely outcome though.

Well, if the football's not on I'm going to need some alternative
entertainment.

(source: Column, Simon Pitchforth; Jakarta Post)